Wind-wheel.



.F, P. GAY.

wmn WHEEL;

APPLICATION FILED OCT- 2]. 1915- 1,230,885. Patented'June 26,1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET L lll-l-ln unu- I I 'illllllllllllllllll lll Witnesses j gfizfigggnventc Attorneys F. P. GAY.

WIND WHEEL.

APPLICATION FILED OCT-27,1916.

1,230,885 a 4 Patented June 26, 1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Witnesses FRANK r. GAY, or PRAIRIE VIEW, KANSAS.

WIND-WHEEL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 26, 1917.

Application filed October 27, 1916. Serial No. 128,067.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK P. GAY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Prairie View, in the county'of Phillips and State of Kansas, have invented a new and useful WVind-VVheel, of which the following is a collar 9 and extending downwardly and is a specification. This lIIVBIltlOIlV relates to wlnd wheels, one

of its objects being to provide a wheel designed to rotate in a horizontal plane and secured to a plate 11 attached to the shaft.

which has a novel arrangement' of blades which are capable ofswinging freely so as not to effect the rotation of the wheel when subjected to the action of air currents.

A further object is to provide simple and eflicient means whereby the axis of rotation of each blade can be shifted, thus to cause the blade to swing in an inclined plane so that, while capable of rotation about its in dividual axis it will, nevertheless, set up a resistance to the air current which will cause the wheel to rotate. A

A further object is to provide a ing blades which will swing outwardly by centrifugal force, thus to act as retarding means to prevent the wheel from spinning at too high a speed.

With the foregoing and other objects in view which will appear as the description proceeds, the invention resides in the combination and arrangement of parts and in the details of construction hereinafter described and claimed, it being understood that changes in the precise embodiment of the invention herein disclosed, can be made within the scope of what is claimed, without departing from the spirit of the invention. A

In the accompanying drawings the preferred form of the invention has been shown.

In said drawings':

Figure l is anelevation of a wind wheel embodying the present improvements, a portion of its supporting structure being shown, said wheel being viewed in thed-irection indicated by the arrow in Fig. 2. r

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the wheel.

Fig. 3 is a detail plan 'view of the lever for controlling the operation of the mill.

Referring to the figures by characters of reference 1 designates the vertical'shaft of the wheel, the same being mounted within a suitable framework indicated generally at 2 and being provided preferably with a thrust bearing 3 at its lower end. This shaft may wheel havhave a gear 4 thereon for transmitting motion through a gear 5 to a shaft 6 from which motion can be transmitted through a sprocket 7 and a chain 8 to any suitable mechanism to be driven.

Secured to the upper end of the shaft 1 outwardly from this collar are brace rods 10 attached at their outer ends to the outer ends of arms 11 which radiate from and are Braces 12 connect the arms 11 so as to hold them fixed relative'to each other. Arranged 1 under and pivotally connected to each arm 11 is a lower movable arm 13 which is in clined'downwardly away from the arm 11, the outer ends'of each pair of arms 11 and 13 forming bearings for a rod 14 carrying a blade 15 which is preferably triangular or to swing relative to the arms. Blades 15 can either rotate with the rods or can rotate thereon as preferred. The blades are so proportioned that when the arms 13 are directly under the arms 11, thus holding the rods 14 vertical, said blades will be free to swing between the arms and in horizontal planes about the rods. Links 16 connect the arms 13 so as to hold them properly spaced.

at all times, these links being pivotally attached to the arms 13 as indicated at 17.

Pivotally connected to the arm 13 of one pair and to the arm 11 0f the next adjoining pair' is a toggle 18 to the middle joint of which is attached an actuating rod 19 secured to the upwardly extending arm of a bell crank'lever 20. Thislever is pivotally mounted on the side of a sleeve 21 which constitutes anextension of the plate 11 and'is designed to rotate with the plate and shaft.

Arranged under the plate 11 and feathered on the shaft 1 is a sleeve '22 connected by a rod 23 to the lower arm of the bell crank lever 20. Sleeve 22 has an annular groove 24 into opposed portions of which extend studs 25 projecting inwardly from opposed portions of a ring 26 which is arranged loosely about the collar. This ring is formed between the ends of a lever 27, one end of the lever being pivotally mounted as at 28 upon the table 29 of the supporting structure 2 while the other end of the lever is pivotally connected to a controlling rod 29 extending downwardly through the structure 2.

It will be obvious thatunder-ordinary conditions, with the arms 13 directly under the respective arms 11, air currents will have no effect upon the wheel for the reason that all of the blades '15 will be free to swing without hindrance about their respective vertical arms 14. However, by pulling clownwardly on the .rod 29, lever 27 will be pulled downwardlyand will shift the sleeve 22 which,.in turn, will pull through rod 23 upon the bell crank lever 20. Thus rod 19 will pull on the toggle 18 and cause the arm 13 connected thereto to shift from under the arm 11 thereover, thus to tilt the blade 15 carried-by said arm. .As all of the arms 13 are connected together by the links 16 it will be obvious that the same result will occur where each of the arms 13 is located. In other words, all of the blades 15 will be simultaneously tilted. Consequently, the action of the wheel will'be as follows:

WVhen'a blade reaches the position marked A in Fig. 2, the pressure'of-air thereagainst will cause the bladeto swing forwardly and upwardly about its inclined pivot and the blade will swing past said pivot so as to snap back against the air current, thus receiving not only the full force of the wind exerted against the blade while snapped back againstithe current,-but also receiving thebenefit ofthe rebound thus set up. As the wheel is rotating, the pivot end thereof will tend to move in advance of the blade so that, while the blade is in the position B in Fig.2 and at intermediate points between positions A and B, said blade will receive the pressure of the wind upon its back face and such pressure willbe transmitted to the wheel, tending to rotate it. When the blade reaches position C it is thrown outwardly to a slight extent by centrifugal force, as shown, thus exerting a slightly retarding action so that the wheel will not spin-too rapidly under the action of a heavy wind. As the blade moves toits fourth position indicated at D, the tendency of the blade is to swing outwardly and this tendency is overcome by the wind to aslight extent, with the result that the blade still presents an inclined surface to the wind and assists in maintaining the rotation of the Wheel.

.Du-ring the inclinationof the blades, the

resistance offered by the blades to the wind pressure can be varied and the speed of rotation consequently controlled. By moving the pivots of the blades to vertical positions, the blades will be free to swing into the wind so as not to cause the wheel to rotate.

It has been found in practice that a wheel such as herein described will operate noiselessly and a wheel having but two blades with a surface of 4:8 square feet has, by actual tests, lifted .two thousand gallons of water 80 feet in six hours.

hat is claimed is:

1. Awind wheel including radiating pairs of arms each pair including an upper arm and a lower arm mounted to swing intoand out of position under the upper arm, blades pivotally connected to the upper and lower arms and adapted to swing freely therebetween, and means for simultaneously shifting the lower arms to tilt the blades.

2. A wind wheel including fixedly connected radial arms, lower arms pivotally connected to the respective radial arms and normally disposed thereunder and diverging outwardly therefrom, blades pivotally connected to and adapted to swing freely between the upper and lower arms, :and means for simultaneously shifting the lower arms to tilt the blades.

8. A wind wheel including a shaft, fixed arms radiating from and revoluble with the shaft, arms pivoted to and diverging outwardly from the respective radial arms, link connections between said pivoted arms, a toggle connection between one of the pivoted arms and one of the fixed arms, blades pivotally connected to andmountedto swing freely betweenithe radialand pivoted arms, a lever revoluble with the shaft, a connection between one arm of the lever and the toggle, a member slidably mounted on and revoluble with the shaft, a connection between said memberand the lever,-and means for shifting said member longitudinally of the shaft irrespective of the rotation of the shaft to swing tlie'pivoted arms and lillbzthG blades.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own, I have hereto afiixed my signa ture in the presence of two witnesses.

FRANK P.- GAY.

Copies of this patent maybe obtained for-five cents each,,by addressing the Commissioner of Iatents,

. Washington, D. G. 

